Jewish student ends lawsuit against Harvard over alleged antisemitism
A Jewish student, Alexander Kestenbaum, who sued Harvard University for not taking action against antisemitism on campus, has officially ended his lawsuit. On Thursday, Kestenbaum and the university filed a joint stipulation of dismissal in a Boston federal court. This dismissal is 'with prejudice,' meaning Kestenbaum cannot file the same lawsuit again.It is not clear whether the two sides reached a settlement. Lawyers for both parties did not comment. advertisementKestenbaum, also known by his Hebrew name "Shabbos," had been a part of a legal campaign by the students against antisemitism. Other such lawsuits were settled earlier this year, but Kestenbaum decided to continue his legal challenge until now.
In January, Harvard pledged to improve protection for Jewish students amid escalating concerns of antisemitism on campus. The university made the promises as it dealt with lawsuits from organisations like Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education and the Brandeis Centre for Human Rights Under Law. Kestenbaum did not sign the deal at the time.Kestenbaum was in his second year at Harvard Divinity School when the campus grew tense with the protests over Gaza. He gained notice almost immediately as a conservative commentator voicing opinions in the news media. He even appeared at a student roundtable in Washington, DC, to discuss the spike in antisemitism on campuses.advertisementHe spoke at the Republican National Convention as part of a Republican-led effort to fight antisemitism in US colleges.Harvard is one of the chief targets, and US President Donald Trump's administration has frozen or terminated more than $2.6 billion of the university's federal grants and contracts in recent weeks.The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school is suing the Trump administration over grant cutoffs, mainly in medical sciences, calling them an unconstitutional attempt to curtail academic freedom and free speech.Another Ivy League school, Columbia University, is another prime White House target in its campaign against antisemitism.Trending Reel
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
14 minutes ago
- Mint
GDP's dirty little secret: Why we should be tracking GVA instead
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate is the headline number everyone tracks to figure out how the economy is doing. It's time we shifted focus to gross value added, or GVA, which is a more direct measure of the incomes generated in the economy. That's because GDP numbers are affected by random decisions by the GST Council to raise tax rates or by the government to slash subsidies. Cut subsidies, boost growth. Such a prescription might seem like snake oil for the consumption of the simpleminded. But cutting subsidies has, indeed, been the simple route to boost GDP growth in India. India's GDP growth in the final quarter of 2024-25 was a dramatic 7.4%. The growth in GVA, which is what counts for creating jobs and putting income in the hands of people, was a more modest 6.8%. The divergence between the growth rates of GDP (6.5%) and GVA (6.4%) has been modest for 2024-25 as a whole. It was starker in 2023-24, when the GDP growth rate was 9.2%, while GVA grew by only 8.6%. The more subsidies are cut, the greater the boost GDP growth gets over GVA growth. Also read | Growth in charts: GDP-GVA divide, export silver lining, capex push India is not accustomed to the chainsaw breed of fiscal conservatism that Elon Musk vocally championed before his high-profile breakup with US President Donald Trump. In the US, the notion that cutting welfare expenditure and other subsidies will make for a healthier fisc and a more robust economy is part of the mainstream narrative, at least on one side of the political divide. The conventional wisdom in Republican circles is that ridding government expenditure of waste and excess would make room for lower government borrowing and lower taxes, and these two would, combined with a dose of deregulation, boost growth. In India, too, many economists have used this approach – not to genuinely foster growth, but rather to dismiss the government's significant role in the economy by labelling it 'socialism' that curtails capitalist dynamism. The NDA government came to power as a slayer of big government and socialism. It once portrayed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a monument of national failure. But, in the face of revealed distress in the economy, it has also assiduously funded the scheme, regardless of how this made the 'monument of failure' shine brighter. There is a big difference between the role the state and subsidies play in an economy like the US and in India, whose per-capita GDP is 3% of the US's $89,000. The way India's GDP is computed allows for a lower subsidy bill to boost GDP, whatever the role of subsidies in supporting subsistence and sustaining growth. GVA is what really matters While GDP is the headline number on everyone's radar, what matters for creating jobs and incomes is GVA. GVA and GDP are highly correlated but not quite the same. The total value that is generated in an economy breaks down into gross profits and the sum total of wages and salaries. GDP is the value of all final goods and services produced and sold in the economy, whether for consumption, investment or export, net of the imports that go into the production of those goods and services. By taking into account only the final goods, we avoid double counting. Steel goes into machinery, construction, washing machines and safety pins. We look at only the value of these final goods, and not the value of the steel produced. Also read | Kaushik Basu: Redefine prosperity; GDP tunnel-vision could prove costly National income can be estimated either from the income side or the expenditure side. Data on income is hard to capture directly on a comprehensive basis, and it is easier to estimate the expenditure on things. When you buy pills, an X-Ray machine, or lab test, what you pay for includes the tax on the good or service. Some of the goods you buy are subsidised by the government, so the price is lower than the actual value – grain from the fair price shop, or electricity in many states for certain classes of consumers are just two examples of this. So, to arrive at the GVA of the economy, you must add up the total expenditure on final goods and services, which will give you GDP, subtract the taxes borne by these goods and services, and add back the subsidies that artificially lowered your expenditure. In other words, GVA = GDP - tax + subsidy. In other words, GDP = GVA + tax - subsidy. Taxes net of subsidies are called net taxes. So GDP = GVA + net taxes. For the same level of value added in the economy, you can have a higher or lower level of GDP by raising or lowering net taxes. You can raise net taxes by raising taxes, lowering the subsidy outgo, or both. You can lower net taxes by lowering tax collections or increasing the subsidy bill. As you can see from the table, when the GVA growth rate increased from 6.7% in 2022-23 to 8.6% the following year, that is, by 1.9 percentage points, the GDP growth rate rose 2.2 percentage points, from 7% to 9.2%. This was effected by reducing the outlays on major subsidies from 2% of GDP to 1.37% of GDP – a decline of 31.5%. Another 15.5% drop in the subsidy/GDP ratio helped boost the GDP number in 2024-25. To get a grip on economic activity and the incomes it generates, it is more useful to look at GVA, rather than GDP, since GDP is affected by changes to subsidy allocations. Also read: Mint Quick Edit | India's GDP: A key test lies ahead
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
16 minutes ago
- First Post
Israel-Iran conflict videos: Lebanese, Palestinians celebrate as Tehran's missiles hit Tel Aviv
Videos shared by Iranian media on X show Palestinians erupting in joy on the streets, flashing victory signs and raising slogans read more Israel's air defenses fended off many of the more than 100 missiles launched. Source: AP People in Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen rejoiced Friday (June 13) as Tel Aviv was hit by a barrage of ballistic missiles by Iran at Israel. Videos shared by Iranian media on X show Palestinians erupting in joy on the streets, making victory signs and raising slogans. Some could be seen with mobiles in their hands as they captured Iranian missiles and drones lighting up the skylines. #BREAKING Palestinians rejoice as Iran carries out retaliatory strikes against Israel. — Tehran Times (@TehranTimes79) June 13, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Another video shows people in Lebanon celebrating Iranian strikes as they take part in a bike rally, with many people holding flags in their hands and chanting slogans. #BREAKING Lebanese celebrate Iran's retaliatory missile operation against Zionist regime — Tehran Times (@TehranTimes79) June 13, 2025 Earlier, US media reported that giant screens were erected in Yemen for a jubilant crowd to watch Iranian strikes on the Jewish nation. Tel Aviv hit by Iranian missiles On Friday, loud warning sirens rang across Israel as Iran launched many ballistic missiles in response to Israel's overnight airstrikes. A few hours later, Iran sent another round of missiles toward Israel. Some of these missiles got past Israel's missile defence system, causing damage and injuries, but the full scope of the destruction is still unclear. In the first attack, Iran fired around 100 missiles in two waves, according to officials. Israel's missile defence system, called the Iron Dome, stopped most of these missiles, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. However, a few missiles hit buildings due to some failures in the defence system. In the second wave, dozens more missiles were fired, and the IDF reported that while some were stopped, others got through. Videos shared on social media, confirmed by The New York Times, showed a missile hitting an area with several military sites, including the IDF's main command centre. The footage suggests that at least one Iranian missile broke through Israel's air defences and struck an important military site in central Tel Aviv. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Israel carried out large airstrikes on Iran on Friday, targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities and aiming to eliminate key military leaders. Media reports say the surprise attack killed at least 20 senior Iranian commanders, including the leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Six nuclear scientists were also confirmed killed in the strikes.
India.com
16 minutes ago
- India.com
Israel-Iran war: Trump warns Iran again, says, 'Attacks from Israel will only...., Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can't have...'
Israel-Iran war: Trump warns Iran again, says, 'Attacks from Israel will only...., Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can't have...' US President Donald Trump said that he is 'not concerned' about a regional war breaking out after Israel targeted and destroyed Iran's military and nuclear sites, while also killing its top nuclear scientists and commanders. President Donald Trump again urged Iran to reach a nuclear deal with US, warning attacks 'will only get worse!'. Trump said that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and that the United States was hoping to get back to the negotiating table. His statement came following large-scale airstrikes launched by Israel against Iran on June 13. In a conversation with Fox News, Donald Trump said, 'Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see. There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back.' US President Donald Trump had previously warned that Israel or US could launch airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiators failed to reach a deal on Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday disclosed that the large-scale military operation against Iran, codenamed 'Operation Rising Lion', was authorised over six months ago, in November 2024, and was initially scheduled for April 2025. In a recorded speech in Hebrew, the prime minister provided updates about the operation to citizens. Netanyahu said the offensive, aimed at dismantling Iran's nuclear capabilities, was initially scheduled for April 2025 but was postponed due to operational considerations.
